Spiritual Sensitivity
Q: Are women naturally more sensitive to the Holy Spirit?
In my experience, I have observed this to be generally true - that women more than men are more inclined to manifest both the giftings and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. To put it simply, I have observed women to have greater sensitivity to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Why could this be and why does it matter?
I think it’s a matter of understanding masculine and feminine energy, especially in the context of Christian spirituality.
“Masculine” energy tends to be logical, disciplined, secure, and accountable. Masculine energy takes action, using logic and reason as its driving force.
“Feminine” energy tends to be intuitive, creative, spontaneous, vulnerable, and forgiving. Feminine energy is more passive than masculine energy, and uses intuition and emotions as its driving force.
These are descriptions of masculine and feminine energies, not men and women. Men manifest feminine energy and women manifest masculine energy. All of us have a certain ideal balance of these energies working through our souls throughout our lives, according to God’s unique design for each of us (these energies out of balance are often the root cause of our sexual and gender dysfunctions). Generally speaking, women will manifest more feminine energy and men will manifest more masculine energy.
Hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit requires a certain feminine sensitivity and intuition. Feminine energy receives. Masculine energy gives. Men, being logically driven beings, do not often orient themselves around their intuition and feelings. Many remain very unaware and even mock the idea of “getting in touch with their feelings.”
So, in order to grow in certain giftings of the Holy Spirit that rely on intuition, men must develop their feminine energy to become sensitive and receptive vessels of God. We do this by actively cultivating the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), making efforts in prayer, and working to balance our masculine energy with more feminine energy that becomes open to receiving from God through emotions and intuition, not just logic and reason.
Jesus Christ is a very good example of a man who walked in an ideal balance of the masculine and feminine. His masculine energy prompted Him to take action on what He received through intuition and feeling:
“‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’” John 5:19 (NIV)
Jesus was clearly a sensitive man who manifested strong intuitive spiritual giftings. But, He was also driven by discipline and a sense of mission. Jesus is an ideal model and pattern for the modern spiritual man.
When coaching or teaching on hearing the voice of God, I notice that women I work with are more easily able to develop this gifting than men. God works through our mind, body, and emotions, and women seem to naturally be much more “in touch” with their internal world. Messages from the spiritual realm come more easily to women and men who have developed their feminine energy.
Our modern culture (and church) value drive, ambition, logic, and reason. We are underdeveloped in our silence, intuition, gentleness, and kindness. The wisdom and promptings of God are intuitive and can offensive to the logic of the world:
“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV)
Women tend to be more naturally sensitive to the voice and promptings of the Holy Spirit. Men can develop these spiritual giftings by focusing on developing their feminine energy to balance the logical action of their masculine energy. Joking aside, I think we as men would live with greater sensitivity to God if we actually made efforts to “get in touch with our feminine side.”
